Overview

Whitecentricism and English hegemony are two forms of oppression that have affected and limited the life chances of linguistically, racialized, and culturally diverse people, including students. In this book, the author draws on postcolonial and socio-cultural theories and resistant narratives to build a strong argument to counter such hegemony. He a rgues that whitecentricism and linguoracism are two dominant ideologies that structurally privilege Whites over non-Whites and monolinguals of English over bilingual and multilingual speakers. He also unveils the psychological and socio-economic effects of whitecentricism and linguoracism on historically and linguistically marginalized groups, including linguistically and culturally diverse students. Finally, the author proposes that whiteness be de-centered and the English-only movement be counteracted for the construction of a more racially and linguistically inclusive and equitable society.

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9781433119828

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Reviews

Using his own experiences growing up poor in Haiti as a jumping off point, Pierre Orelus strikes at the heart of racism and colonization through sharp political, cultural, educational, and historical analysis. Simply put, Whitecentricism and Linguoracism Exposed is a powerful book that anyone seriously interested in understanding systemic racial inequality in the United States and its de-facto colonies will want to read. (Wayne Au, Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Washington-Bothell, the author of Critical Curriculum Studies: Education, Consciousness, and the Politics of Knowing, and an editor for Rethinking Schools.) Pierre Orelus's present work creates a critical space of counter-racism awareness that should minimally confront Whitecentricism and its still-colonizing life prospects at historical, descriptive, and analytical levels ... It should be widely read, for it guides us to a more humanist space that embraces the rights of all for the benefit of all. (Ali Abdi, Professor of Education and International Development at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada) In this engaging, accessible, and thoughtful book, Pierre Orelus reveals the price we all pay for the enduring pathologies of whitecentricism and linguoracism. These practices that relegate people of different races to radically different life chances can be remedied, Orelus argues, but only by sincere and serious efforts to change the ways we teach, learn, think, and speak. As much a guide to a new and better world as an analysis of the shortcomings of the one we now inhabit, this is a book that can teach us how to do serious work and do it well. (George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place)

Author Information

Pierre W. Orelus is Assistant Professor in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at New Mexico State University. His research interests include post-colonial studies; bi-literacy; bilingualism; immigrant and transnational studies; race, class, and gender studies; and critical pedagogy. Dr. Orelus’s recent books include Rethinking Race, Class, Gender, and Language and Courageous Voices of Immigrants and Transnationals of Color (Peter Lang, 2011).

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